Scytale (Dune)
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Scytale is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He is a face dancer of the Tleilaxu. In the novel Dune Messiah, Scytale participates in the conspiracy to topple the rule of Paul Atreides. He later returns as a ghola in Heretics of Dune and again as a Tleilaxu Master in Chapterhouse Dune.
In Dune Messiah Scytale is a Face Dancer of the Bene Tleilax who is involved with Edric the Guild Navigator, Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, Proctor Superior of the Bene Gesserit school on Wallach IX and Shaddam IV's Truthsayer, and Princess Irulan Corrino, consort of Paul Atreides, or Muad'Dib, the Emperor, in a plot to assassinate and later force Paul to abdicate his throne and renounce his Qizarate religion. He is arguably the smartest conspirator.
[[Image:Scytale1.JPG|left|thumb|100px]|Scytale is portrayed by [Martin McDougall] in the Children of Dune (TV miniseries).]]
Scytale kills and assumes the appearance of Otheym's Lichna of Berk al Dib in order to gain entrance to the Atreides Keep at Arrakeen and lure Paul out to Otheym's house where the conspirators had planted a Stone Burner. The attack fails to kill Paul, but the atomic blast blinds him, forcing him, according to Fremen tradition, to wander into the desert alone to die, thus thwarting the plot.
Scytale meets his fate at the birth of Paul and Chani Atreides' twins Leto II and Ghanima from the crysknife thrown by Paul, guided by a prescient vision from his newborn son, just before Paul wanders into the desert.
Scytale reappears in Heretics of Dune as a Master, which is the source of much debate among Dune fanatics. After learning how to restore a ghola's memories in Dune Messiah, the Bene Tleilaxu Masters use this knowledge as a form of immortality. The subject of the debate is if a Face Dancer can become a Master.
The Honored Matres destroy the Bene Tleilaxu worlds and Rakis in retaliation for the Tleilaxu role in programming the latest Duncan Idaho ghola with knowledge of how to sexually enslave Honored Matres. Scytale barely escapes the attack while leaving his homeworld and is picked up and held prisoner by the Bene Gesserit and kept in the no-ship which also holds Duncan and the last remaining sandworm from Dune. Scytales' secret bargaining chips are knowledge of creating artificial spice and a nullentropy capsule containing enough cells of the Atreides, their Lieutenants and Tleilaxu technicians to repopulate the Tleilaxu race. The last we see of Scytale is as he is forced to escape when Duncan Idaho cracks the no-ship's computer, blasts off, erases the computer memory and folds into unknown space.
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